The device of this invention is a support to be placed on a roof between two ladders. Specifically, the invention is to be used in aiding firefighters cut holes in the roofs of burning buildings. In conventional firefighting procedure, where the roof of a building is exposed to the fire, it is necessary to open a hole in the roof so that the smoke and flame will be concentrated there rather than weakening the entire roof. This also creates an updraft that has a tendency to clear the windows and doors of smoke so that the firefighter may evacuate persons trapped in the building and may themselves enter the building to fight the fire.
In making such an opening usually a single roof ladder is hooked over the ridge of the roof. The firefighter must then lean over and chop a hole near the side of the ladder. This is a very awkward procedure. He may have to leave one foot on the ladder and put one foot on the roof. In that case, a burning roof weakened on the under side could collapse under the foot of the firefighter that is directly in contact with the roof thereby causing the firefighter to fall into the fire.
By use of a unique and simple design the invention may be used with two conventional ladders to form a safe support for the second foot of the fireman. The applicant's invention makes it exceedingly unlikely that the fireman would lack the support that is needed for him to maintain his balance when cutting a hole in a roof even if the fire underneath is severe.
While many devices are known which support either a step or a scaffold from one or more ladders, none are known to the inventor which use his method of hooking his invention to the ladders. For example U.S. Pat. No. 1,886,921 (Tobin) discloses a structure in which a pair of ladders support a board 33, see FIG. 6 of the Tobin patent, which crosses between them. The support structure shown at the right hand side of the illustration (FIG. 6) hooks over a single rung of the ladder. The structure shown at the left side of the illustration bolts to the side rail of the ladder. An alternative structure shown in FIG. 8 has a bracket around the side rail of the ladder. These structures are disclosed as alternatives to one another. However none of structures boxes the side rail and hooks over two of the rungs of the ladders, as does the applicant's invention. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,279,327 (Warren) and 4,531,613 (Keigher) are two patents that relate specifically to firefighting but show a rather different structure than that of the applicant's invention in which a single ladder has an extension at the top wide enough to embrace the area where the hole is to be made. These two patents show devices that limit the firefighter to the area where the ladder has been hooked and as such are not nearly as adaptable as the applicant's invention. In addition the footing is not as secure.
The remaining prior art patents, specifically, U.S. Pat. No. 1,487,243 (Jackson), U.S. Pat. No. 2,426,825 (Geary), U.S. Pat. No. 2,439,185 (Patt), U.S. Pat. No. 2,856,112 (Broderick), and U.S. Pat. No. 2,948,349 (Reddy) show variations in which a step or a scaffold is supported from one or more ladders. Some of the prior art inventions attach to rungs of the ladder while others attach to the side rails but no case is there a single structure that both attaches to the rungs and boxes the side rails as does the applicant's invention. Also, the step or scaffold disclosed in the prior art is usually a board rather than a metal piece having non-skid tread elements.